Noah ben Lamech
10th Genesis Patriarch * Biblical Prophet of the Great Flood Noah in the Abrahamic religions was the tenth and last of the pre-Flood Patriarchs. The story of Noah's Ark is told in the Bible's Genesis flood narrative. The biblical account is followed by the story of the Curse of Ham. In addition to the Book of Genesis, Noah is mentioned in the Old Testament in the First Book of Chronicles, and the books of Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Isaiah, Ezekiel, 2 Esdras, 4 Maccabees; in the New Testament, he is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, and Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1st Peter and 2nd Peter. Noah was the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including the Quran (Surahs 71, 7, 1, and 21). LDS Bible Dictionary * Source: LDS Bible Dictionary The patriarch; son of Lamech (Gen. 5:29–32). When he was 10 years old, Noah was ordained to the priesthood by Methuselah (D&C 107:52). He became a preacher of righteousness and declared the gospel of Jesus Christ, even as Enoch, teaching faith, repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 2:5; Moses 8:19, 23–24). His life was sought by unbelievers, but he was preserved by the power of God (Moses 8:18, 26). He and his sons Japheth, Shem, and Ham, and their wives, making eight in all, were saved from the Flood by the ark he had built at the command of God (Gen. 6–8; Heb. 11:7; 1 Pet. 3:20). We learn from latter-day revelation that Noah is also the angel Gabriel (HC 3:386). The Lord’s covenant with Noah affirmed that the earth would never be covered with a flood again (Gen. 9:1–17; Moses 7:49–52). Noah, a righteous man, holds the keys of a dispensation and stands next to Adam in authority (HC 3:386). Other references to Noah are Isa. 54:9; Ezek. 14:14, 20; Matt. 24:37–38; Luke 3:36; 17:26–27. The tradition of a great flood is found in nearly every ancient culture. A Babylonian account closely resembles the record in the Bible, but the biblical account differs from all others in its religious value and the purpose of it. The scriptural account teaches that the Flood was sent to cleanse the earth because of the wickedness of the people. Noah and his family were saved because they were righteous (Gen. 6:9; Moses 8:27). The authenticity of the Genesis account of the Flood is confirmed by latter-day revelation as recorded in Moses 7:34, 42–43; 8:8–30. See also Ether 13:2. The Great Flood The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible. The narrative, one of many flood myths found in human cultures, indicates that God intended to return the Earth to its pre-Creation state of watery chaos by flooding the Earth because of humanity's misdeeds and then remake it using the microcosm of Noah's ark. Thus, the flood was no ordinary overflow but a reversal of creation.5 The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by the way of the flood, the preparation of the ark for certain animals, Noah, and his family, and God's guarantee (the Noahic Covenant) for the continued existence of life under the promise that he would never send another flood. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. (Gen. 7:11-14) Post-Flood After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God, who said: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done" (8:20–21). "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (9:1). They were also told that all fowls, land animals, and fishes would be afraid of them. Furthermore, as well as green plants, every moving thing would be their food with the exception that the blood was not to be eaten. Man's life blood would be required from the beasts and from man. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man" (9:6). A rainbow, called "my bow", was given as the sign of a covenant "between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations" (9:2–17), called the Noahic covenant or the rainbow covenant. Curse of Ham After the flood, the Bible says that Noah became a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. He drank wine made from this vinyard, and got drunk; and lay "uncovered" within his tent. Noah's son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers, which led to Ham's son Canaan being cursed by Noah. Marriage and Family His father was Lamech and his mother is unknown. When Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5:32). Genesis Family Narrative There were six human ouls on Noah's Ark - Noah, his three sons and each of their wives. 28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: 29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. 30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: 31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. 32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis 5:28-32 Marriage and Family # Shem - The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arphaxad. # Ham - saw his father's drunkeness and his son Cainan is cursed. Purported to be father of African peoples. # Japheth - in the Table of Nations he is the ancestor of the peoples of Europe and Anatolia. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples Category:Old Testament Prophets Category:Mormon Prophets